What! How? This can’t be right…..
He was standing before his grandparents’ house, its presence demanding his attention. He was sure he had meant to end up at work, but he couldn’t remember anything of how he had managed to end up at the very place he had sworn never to set foot again. The very house that had haunted his dreams and his life for the last few months. Hand shaking, and not knowing why, he reached for the handle and entered the house.
Walking swiftly, he strolled through the house feeling surprisingly relaxed. Taking on a brisk pace, raced up the stairs and spun through the halls. Till he stood in front of the battered attic door. Taking a deep breath, he placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it.
The door swung open, the air musty with a thin layer of white smoke drifting through the room. On near silent feet, he followed the map so clearly etched in his mind. Past the huge pile of charcoal boxes, across the ebony mats, slipping between the ashen chairs till he stood before a small ivory table. Heart thudding painfully against his ribcage, he saw the impossible.
Colour.
A small photo of a young man and a woman, a camera and an odd-looking object, small and colourful, just like the sun he had been told about so many years before. It was breathtaking, so real and vivid, like he was finally awakening from the dead. Like he was finally alive.
But wait...that photo….he knew who was in it. Oh my god. They were younger but still the resemblance was uncanny. It was his grandparents. Reaching a tentative hand forward, he touched the surface of the image. It was as if he were a living sponge, color flowed into him, his hand turned a pale ivory, color spreading over him, and his surroundings. The shocking variety of shades was incredible! He felt a dampness on his cheeks before he realized that tears were sliding down his flushed face. But when he went wipe them away, he realized they were no longer black, but a vibrant blue.
For the first time in his life, he could see.
So he looked.